THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 10, 2000

Skip Kendall

SKIP KENDALL: Okay, for all you wonderful people, five people in the interview room here: No. 11, I hit it on the back fringe which wasn't too far away probably 20-foot putt, made it. 16, the par 5, I hit 3-wood in there just right of the green and probably chipped up to about a foot. 17, I hit 3-wood, 8-iron probably about five feet. And 7, hit a 9-iron, not a great shot, probably made a 30-footer there, kind of a nice putt. Bogeyed the 8th hole. Hit it in the left bunker and just didn't get it up-and-down. Missed about a 10-foot putt for par.

SKIP KENDALL: I don't think -- I tend to view things the other way. I don't think anything is a disappointment, to be quite honest. I was there. I was there. If I would have played a better back 9 you never know, but the course was playing awfully difficult and last year, at least at THE PLAYERS and it was fun. I had a good time. I view things the other way. I just -- I look at everything as a positive and you just go on. I finished second at Hartford last year and if it wasn't for Brent, I actually set the tournament scoring record there. But I lost by 3. I played my butt off there and just someone played better, hats off, you know, nothing you can do. But I just want to keep getting there, to be quite honest. Like I said, yesterday, I feel like the more times I get there, I am going to pull one off one of these times. Unfortunately it has been a little bit too far and few between how many times I do get there. So I am working on that. Haven't been off -- haven't gotten off to a great start this year and I have really worked hard last couple of weeks and it seems to be paying off.

SKIP KENDALL: I think the wind was blowing just a little bit harder today. It did play a lot more difficult. It seemed like, especially with the holes coming back in, probably 14 through 18 - except for 17 - and when you turn around coming back on No. 6, yeah, those holes played awfully difficult. It was kind of a cross, too, left-to-right and in, so it wasn't just straight. Those holes especially played a little bit more difficult. Even the first three holes, they had pins tucked over bunkers and the wind was either right-to-left and down or dead down. It was impossible to get the ball close. I mean, the balls were -- you'd land five feet short of the hole, it would go all the way to the back edge. You had no chance. Just the way it played today, the way the wind was, you had to take what you could get.

SKIP KENDALL: Actually I started on the other side.

SKIP KENDALL: It would have been the same thing obviously if I would have started on that side, I would have realized probably going to be a little bit more difficult today at least if those pin placements were going to be the same as they were the first three holes. It probably still is not blowing as hard as it usually does here and, you know, I am kind of happy to see that, actually.

SKIP KENDALL: Oh, no. Not at all. It just -- they just happen to occur right in a row, I think. I hit a little lob wedge in on the first hole, my best could I hit it was about 30 feet, and No. 2 I probably had -- I had wedge into No. 2 and best I could hit it was -- I hit it like 50 feet past the hole, my ball landed five feet short of the hole. Dead downwind like that, it was impossible. No. 3 finally I laid it where I could hit it a little bit right of the hole that way I was pin-high, but I probably had 20, 25 feet coming back up at it.

SKIP KENDALL: Just the things I have been working on. I have told a couple of people I have probably practiced more in the last two weeks than I did all of last year. I really worked hard last couple of weeks. My body actually can tell that too. I saw some good signs last week, I hit some -- finally I hit some quality shots. I didn't score as well as I would have liked. I missed the cut, but I saw some good things happening and I went home Friday night and Saturday through Tuesday, you know, I mean, it was non-stop. I just worked my butt off and I am starting to come around.

SKIP KENDALL: Basically just sequence. I was just out of whack in that respect and just the order in what I was doing, just was out of sequence. Just doing a lot of drills.

SKIP KENDALL: No. Doesn't matter who is playing good. If I am playing good, I am going for it. I don't care who is up there and I am sure they don't either.

SKIP KENDALL: Yeah, it is always a goal of, I think, everyone out here. Sure, you'd like to represent your country in either of Ryder Cup or The Presidents Cup. We knew those players were great players before that happened. They shouldn't have made it as close as they did. But the Europeans played great, so you can't -- in Match Play and as we have seen in the past few years, or in the last five or six Ryder Cups, you can't, even though on paper the Americans look a lot better, you never know who is going to win. That is why we play the games. That is what makes it so great. But all those players are already great players. I mean, I am happy we won. I don't know if I view them any differently than I did before the Ryder Cup, though. If that is what you meant?

SKIP KENDALL: Okay.